News stories from Sunday September 11, 1977

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

The nation's fuel bill could he raised by $550 million to $610 million under the cargo preference bill supported by the administration, the General Accounting Office estimated in a long-awaited report. The estimate is more than five times the figures given by the administration last July and much higher than the G.A.O. had estimated in an interim report in July. The agency then said that the cost of the bill, which would require that 9.5 percent of the nation's imported oil be transported in United States-flag ships, could boost the cost of oil by at least $240 million a year. [New York Times] No change will be made by President Carter in the general tenor of the Justice Department's legal brief in a landmark civil rights case involving Allan Bakke, White House officials said. Mr. Carter, though, may suggest some "substantive" changes in the wording. Mr. Bakke, a white, charged in a suit that he was unconstitutionally discriminated against when he was denied admission to the medical school at the University of California at Davis when a number of less qualified blacks, Chicanos and Asian-Americans were admitted under a special quota system. In its brief, to be filed with the Supreme Court this week, the Justice Department contends that a quota system for minorities should be found unconstitutional. [New York Times] Bert Lance's resignation was urged by Margaret Costanza, President Carter's assistant for public affairs. She was the first White House staff member to ask publicly that the budget director quit. In a television interview, Miss Costanza said that controversy surrounding Mr. Lance's financial affairs has "preoccupied" both Mr. Lance and Mr. Carter. [New York Times] A "national family policy" has been proposed by the Carnegie Council on Children to guarantee a job for every family's breadwinner and to assure that no child need be raised in poverty. This would be done by replacing the existing welfare structure with a system of refundable tax credits that would establish a basis for every family's income. The tax credits would be tied to a radical simplification of the federal income tax. The council arrived at its recommendations through a five-year study of how public programs affect the family. [New York Times] The world economy is "unsatisfactory," said the International Monetary Fund in the gloomiest analysis in recent months. Rising unemployment, "subnormal growth" and widespread inflation that imposed both monetary and fiscal restraints left "little room for maneuver," the world's superlending agency said in a report to its more than 120 member countries. [New York Times] New attention is being given by the government and industry to a 35-year-old engine design that might economize on fuel and control air pollution. The engine, built around a direct-injection, stratified charge mechanism, was developed by Texaco and tested for many years in cars and Army jeeps. Its backers say that it could reduce the nation's oil demand by more than 20 percent. [New York Times] Loans larger than 80 percent of the value of two-family dwellings, which are in a high-risk category, would be included in a "major policy change" in the Federal Home Loan Bank Board's regulations on the mortgage lending operations of saving and loan institutions. At present, these institutions can make 80 to 90 percent loans only on one-family homes. [New York Times] Representative Herman Badillo will support Representative Edward Koch's candidacy for Mayor of New York City, according to Mr. Koch's campaign aides. Mr. Badillo held separate meetings with Mr. Koch and Mario Cuomo, the candidate's opponent in next Monday's primary runoff. Mr. Badillo is expected to announce his endorsement tomorrow. His backing is expected to strengthen Mr. Koch's election prospects in the Hispanic community, which voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Badillo in last week's primary.Mario Cuomo, campaigning in Harlem for the Democratic runoff for Mayor, denounced Mr. Koch's advocacy of the death penalty. Speaking from the guest pulpit of the United Presbyterian Church of The Master at 122nd Street and Morningside Avenue, Mr. Cuomo declared, "Capital punishment is largely irrelevant to the working of the Mayor's office. It is a wrong issue, but it has been raised." He and his wife participated later in an Afro-American Day Parade. [New York Times] A plan for the West Bank area, now held by Israel, is scheduled for presentation by Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan in Washington next week. It would give Palestinian Arabs a large measure of internal autonomy while Israeli forces would maintain strategic installations. It assumes that since no territorial Israeli-Arab agreement is in sight, a practical arrangement for both sides to live together should be tried. [New York Times] Coverage of African countries, both black and white, is increasingly restricted for foreign correspondents, with Nigeria having expelled all but one resident Western correspondent. A Tanzanian spokesman has observed that many Western reporters come to developing countries with "a useless frame of reference" because they cannot compare conditions with those of a few years earlier. [New York Times]